


The Forest

by nhasablog



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bondage, Light Bondage, M/M, Tickling, elf!steve, prince!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 23:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13962156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhasablog/pseuds/nhasablog
Summary: Tony is a prince who journeys into a forest when it all becomes slightly too much to meet an elf named Steve to engage in giggly activities.





	The Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Bondage, tickling while restrained

Tony wasn’t technically a king yet, but his father had been missing for so long that all his duties had fallen on his only son ages ago. They kept contact, and the king kept saying that he was needed elsewhere for the time being but that he would be back soon, though Tony knew that was a lie. He would only return once Tony had finally built the kingdom back to its glory days, and then he would take it from him and claim it as his own. It wasn’t prince-like, but Tony really wished he would never return, or, if he did, that he could do it now, because he was suffocating.

“The lake-people are pissed at us,” Rhodey, his first officer, said.

“When are they not pissed at us?” Tony mumbled, having been friends with Rhodey for long enough that he didn’t care if he heard him being petty. “What’s happened now?”

But before Rhodey could tell him Natasha rushed in, having traded her dress for a uniform not unlike Rhodey’s. She’d obviously been on duty.

“We have a problem,” she said.

“You’re out of breath. Who have you enraged?”

But before she could tell him Clint entered the room, having most likely been on the same mission as Nat. “You royal highness-”

“Cut the crap, Barton, and talk.” Having your old classmates work for you was strange.

“We have-”

But before he could finish his sentence Jarvis appeared, looking worried and holding a note in his hands. “Sir-”

Tony was losing his goddamn mind.

He had to leave.

“Take care of it,” he told them, getting up before anyone could stop him. “I don’t care what it is. I’ll deal with whatever’s left tomorrow.” He stalked past them and left the room, left the palace, would leave the country if he could, but was content in just leaving the royal grounds using the secret passage only he knew about. He needed his forest. Desperately so.

* * *

 

The night fell suddenly, but as he entered the thick woods he could still make out the fading sunlight between branches. He would know the way blindfolded, so he stepped over the traps easily, fondly remembering a time where he’d been caught. He had to smile, his first genuine smile in days. This forest had that effect on him. He tried to not utilize the peace it brought him too much out of fear things would change, but he still ended up here at least once a week. He had to, if he wanted to rule the kingdom with a clear mind and a hint of sanity.

He heard the familiar footsteps of the elves, though it sounded as if only one was coming to meet him. He wasn’t a king - or a prince - in this forest, but they all treated him with respect as long as he did so back. He had no intentions of ever being rude to them, so he hoped their friendship would last until his death.

A young elf - Sam, he’d asked to be called - stepped out of the greenness, smiling easily in Tony’s direction. “Back so soon?”

“If I stayed I would either become the shell of the man I am or commit a lawless crime.”

“Aren’t all crimes lawless?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“Who you are, mostly. Even a prince can’t excuse a murder.”

Sam seemed sympathetic. “Do you want me to get him?”

Tony looked around. Took in the trees surrounding the clearing he was standing in “Is he in a more secluded area?”

“He is.”

“Can you take me to him instead?”

Sam did, moving slowly so that Tony wouldn’t lose him. Tony only knew the forest to a certain point, and he had a feeling they were journeying farther this time around. He was glad for it. The farther the better.

Sam didn’t ask any questions. The first few times Tony had been in the presence of elves he’d been astounded over how quiet they could be. How they didn’t feel the need to fill every waking moment with words that didn’t mean anything half the time. It had been quite the culture shock for the prince, who seemed to never live in silence, but now he appreciated it. Sam didn’t need to ask what was weighing him down that day. If Tony wanted to share, he could do it on his own accord.

Elves were private creatures, so Tony knew that not all of them appreciated being asked about their days or moods either. Sam was usually neutral to being asked questions, but Tony wasn’t in the mood to talk, and knew he was offending no one by acting out his wishes.

Prince or not, you were always supposed to act the way they expected you to.

Sam stopped so suddenly that Tony nearly walked into him, which would’ve been more awkward with another elf, but awkward nonetheless. “He’s in there.”

Tony nodded and bid Sam farewell, and he disappeared before Tony had even attempted to step into the clearing that was hidden behind the thick trees. Tony might’ve been afraid if he’d not already done this before, albeit in different parts of the forest.

He trusted this forest.

The clearing was tinted with gold, partly from the sunset happening beyond the trees, partly from the yellowing leaves. It wasn’t a big clearing; definitely more secluded than the one Sam had found him in, and Tony felt the familiar warmth was his eyes settled on Steve’s form. He was sitting on a stone, as if waiting for him, though the pile of flower crowns beside him begged to differ.

He smiled when their eyes met. “Agápi moú.”

“My love.”

Steve tilted his head. “You seem tired.”

“I’ve missed you.”

Steve was a secret. One Tony was intending on keeping forever, or at least until it became less taboo for humans to be with other species.

Steve held out his hand. An invitation. “Come here.”

Tony did without protest, settling in the elf’s embrace easily.

“I’ve missed you too,” Steve said, even though a week was technically less time for him and his longer life. An ancient being who shouldn’t be alive. Tony felt blessed that he was.

Tony sighed. “I kind of want to vent, but-”

“If it will make you feel better, then please do.”

“It’s the same complaints as last week. Nothing new.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“No, but I want to keep it out of this forest for tonight.”

“I understand.”

Tony pressed his face into Steve’s neck. “You always do.”

Steve held him tightly against his body, as if he had no other duties but to make Tony feel better. Tony sometimes felt guilty over how often he journeyed into the woods just to feel better, but Steve had practically forbidden him from staying in the palace if it wasn’t doing him good.

It rarely did him good, to be fair.

“Do you want to-” Steve started, trailing off when Tony groaned. They both knew what he meant, but Tony still felt embarrassed about it. About having either of them say it aloud, even though what they were about to do was hard to conceal.

“I do,” Tony replied, cheeks already burning. “I always do.”

“I know.” He could heard Steve’s grin. “I love that you do.”

“Don’t tease me.”

“I would never.”

Steve kissed him when Tony emerged, as if to reassure him.

“Just say what you want and we’ll get right to it.”

“Are you sure? Don’t you want to, like, talk first?”

“I want to hear you laugh. We can talk afterwards, when you’re in higher spirits and content.”

What Tony had done to deserve this elf was beyond him.

They’d done this a million times before, but Steve always asked him what he wanted, and Tony always blushed his head off while replying.

“I want to be helpless,” he said this time, his way of confessing that he wanted to be restrained. “I just need to lose control voluntarily for once.”

Steve nodded. “Got it. Whenever you’re ready.”

Tony was always ready.

Steve produced the rope as out of thin air, and a moment later Tony’s arms were tied behind the tree he was leaning against, and therefore behind him. Leaving his body exposed and vulnerable. Just like he wanted it.

Steve crouched to check the ropes, resting one hand against his side just to taunt him. Tony heard him snickering at the way he tensed, but he couldn’t even attempt to glare at him. A helpless smile was already stapled to his lips. The anticipation was driving him insane.

“Right,” Steve said, sitting back, leaving Tony’s legs free for now. “May I?”

“Be my guest.”

Steve always started slowly, like always. His hand brushing against the bare skin where Tony’s tunic was riding up. Making his belly jump beneath the light touch. A yelp escaped his lips when Steve kept repeating the movement, never once stopping. Once his second hand joined in it didn’t take long for Tony to start giggling.

Nor did it take long for his body to start writhing.

“Already struggling?” Steve teased, scratching his fingernails against Tony’s lower belly relentlessly.

“Shut uhup,” Tony replied, very unprince-like, but what the hell, he was being tickled to death and they were barely a minute in.

“I love the way you instinctively try to suck in your stomach,” Steve said. “It proves I’m doing something right.”

Tony wasn’t going to survive this with his dignity intact, but he couldn’t find it in him to care.

You never knew what it would feel like to be this helpless and vulnerable until you got to experience it. The way the ropes cut into Tony’s wrists as he pulled and pulled and yet failed to free his hands. The way his body twisted and yet was unable to get away from the unbearable touch. The way his heels dug into the ground and yet made no difference. It was overwhelming and liberating to him - liberating in the way he had chosen this himself.

Steve was good at this. Before Tony met him he hadn’t even known what tickling was, since it wasn’t something that elves did among each other. Tony had always known he liked it, but had never experienced it the way he did with Steve. All his exes merely pinned him against a bed, but never went further, and for the majority of the time the pinning led to something else, and so Tony had never had an opportunity to ask for more.

With Steve it had been different. Once their friendship became more, he’d realized quickly that Steve liked touching him. Therefore it didn’t take too long for him to discover Tony’s sensitivity, and once he’d been informed of what it was he was always tickling him. He’d recently confessed that a big part of why he’d been doing it was because he’d noticed how much Tony had liked it.

Tony had admitted that he’d wanted to be restrained while tickled during a heart to heart in the middle of the night, and they’d tried it soon after. It was now a common thing for them to do, but Tony still blushed to his scalp talking about it, which Steve found hilarious.

“Gah, wait!” Tony cried out as Steve’s fingers found his lower ribs, playing them like an instrument and producing the most out of place music for a forest like this. But no one had ever asked them to stop. Tony wasn’t foolish enough to believe no one had heard them.

He barely had time to blush at the thought before the fingers started circling around the little skin that was accessible of his armpits, setting every nerve on edge. Making Tony pull and pull at his arms as hysterical laughter poured out of his mouth. Steve was smirking, mirth dancing in his eyes.

“You like this,” he stated, purely to fluster him. “I love that you like it.”

Tony couldn’t reply, but Steve hadn’t expected that. He merely leaned in to blow raspberry after raspberry against the tender skin of his neck, making Tony fall apart with laughter.

It would be a long giggly night, and Tony was all there for it.

* * *

 

Tony returned to the palace way past the early hours, and while the people he met on his way raised their eyebrows no one made any comment. They knew better than to question their prince’s nightly habits.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my [tumblr](http://nhasablog.tumblr.com).


End file.
